


What I Wouldn't Give | Part Two: The Wrap Party

by flowerbeom



Series: What I Wouldn't Give [2]
Category: GOT7
Genre: Eventual Smut, Extreme Requited yet hidden love, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, JB not knowing what to do with his hands, Mutual Pining, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:07:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27470215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowerbeom/pseuds/flowerbeom
Summary: A story where a heartsick, pining and ‘hopelessly in love with his stylist’ Jaebeom finds himself in an awkward situation in the house of the stylist who’s equally heart sick and hopelessly in love with him. But neither of them know… yet.
Relationships: Im Jaebum | JB/Original Character(s), Im Jaebum | JB/Reader, Im Jaebum | JB/You
Series: What I Wouldn't Give [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994902
Kudos: 10





	What I Wouldn't Give | Part Two: The Wrap Party

**Author's Note:**

> Please do enjoy soft, nervous Jae - one of his stronger forms.  
> Song Mood: Do You Love Me - LUNA

Liquid courage was exactly what Jaebeom was swirling in his glass as he watched you from the bar. Lips folded between his teeth as his eyes trailed down all the lines and curves the dress you had chosen to wear put on display. A long sleeve, high neck, waist hugging dress that hovered just above your knee and floated just mid of your thigh every time you twirled to the music. **  
**

You never dressed like this; a flowy dress that clung to your body over the jeans and chic blouses you usually wore. Sneakers swapped out for heels that made your legs seem longer, and Jaebeom could swear he was losing his mind as he watched you dance. You were a rational, function over fashion kind of girl when it came to work, but tonight wasn’t work - it was pleasure; and you dressed for the occasion.

“Dance with her.” Yugyeom’s voice cut through the music, the statement piercing into Jaebeom’s already swelling brain. Snapping his head, his eyes locked onto Yugyeom’s, his stare kind but suggestive. 

“I–” The hesitation in his voice made his chest clench, his body shouting out in hopes his mind would shut up. 

Yugyeom gently pulled the glass out of Jaebeom’s hand, his other lightly pushing his shoulder. “Hyung, dance with her.” 

Jaebeom took one step, then halted; turning back to Yugyeom who simply offered him a tender smile and another, albeit more forceful than before, push on the back. Jaebeom meandered through the crowd, the ephemeral expanse of time it took to get to you starting to make his ears pound rather than the music that blared in the room.

Bambam joined Yugyeom at the bar, leaning an elbow against the stone; staring at the back of Jaebeom’s head as he moved far too slowly through the crowd. Taking a languid sip of his single malt - neat, double, like his coat - Bambam tapped Yugyeom on the forearm with the back of his fingers. Pulling the straw out of his mouth, Yugyeom wiped the sweet crimson liquid that had clung to his lip with the pad of his thumb as he turned to his friend. 

“Twenty dollars.” Bambam said frankly against the edge of his glass.

“On? On Hyung?” Said in pout, straw once again indenting Yugyeom’s bottom lip. 

“On them. Hyung and Noona. On tonight.” Through a smirk and with eyes following Jaebeom as he made his way closer to you, Bambam held out an open hand. Yugyeom didn’t take it, defiant against the bet. 

“It doesn’t work if we both want them to get together. I’ll be betting against a sure thing.” 

“It’s been five years Yugs, it’s like _they’re_ betting against a sure thing.” Yugyeom couldn’t disagree, though they couldn’t agree on who would receive the money should the evening not result in, well _results_. So they hedged their bets on success. Everything on red. All in on the pair of Aces each one of you held. Risk it for the biscuit, one of them would say. So Bambam’s twenty dollars went on another round of drinks instead. 

“He’s coming.” Hana teased as she tucked her chin over your shoulder, speaking directly into your ear. Guiding your hips to the beat, you pulled back; meeting her evocative smile with a blank one. She knew you knew who she was talking about, but leant in once more to hammer in the nail that had wedged into your sternum.

“Jaebeom’s coming!” You saw her shift, her body tilting to the side to greet the person behind you. 

“Hi Jaebeom!” Her shrill pitch made you cringe, eyes rolling back into your skull; though you were hasty to compose yourself. Turning quickly, you found yourself beside Hana; smoothing down your dress as it crept a little higher up your leg from the spin. 

“Hi Beom–Jae.. Hi Jaebeom.” Flustered, lost in how the lights danced across his face and how it somehow made his smile even more enchanting, you bit your top lip to stop you from stuttering. 

His hand reached for his nape as he cast his eyes to his shoes. Behind his smile a subtle tint of rose shaded his cheeks, but you blamed that on the lighting. Why would he be blushing? 

“Hey! I didn’t–” 

“Wow, I need another drink. You want another drink? I’m going to get another drink!” Your fingers tried to latch onto Hana’s wrist to stop her from leaving, but she snaked away with a devilish glint in her eyes. 

“No no, you stay, you stay! Dance!” Arms gesturing for Jaebeom to close the gap and stop taking up prime real estate on the dance floor, you both eyed her as she slipped away; your statue like states becoming an awkward observance in the middle of the room. But who were you kidding, most of your observances were _awkward_. 

Still unmoving while surrounded by people dancing, Jaebeom took a step closer; your chin automatically lifting to meet his eyes. Jaebeom was about to speak, but the closeness of your lips scared him. Watching your bottom lip pull between your teeth made him want to pull it between his own, but he settled on trying to make himself stop shaking. 

“I didn’t know you were coming.” A lie. He knew. Mark made sure of that. 

“I came for you.” There it was. The truth. That half bottle of wine at home, the two dirty martinis and the tequila shot Hana had tipped down your throat to get you to calm down were suddenly sloshing between your temples and flinging the wrong words out of your mouth. You watched, in your haze and as if in slow motion, Jaebeom’s eyes widen.

“Me?” Said just soft enough to almost be drowned out by the music.

“No! Well yes.. I-I came for all of you. Everyone here, I came for you guys. To celebrate! Yay!” A lie. You knew. As if the bead of sweat sliding down the back of your neck wasn’t reminding you enough already. Grinding your teeth at your stupidity, you faked a laugh to diffuse the tension. Jaebeom saw you trying to form sentences in your head and wanted nothing more than to take away the terrified look in your eye. So just as quickly as you blurted out something incredibly untrue, and despite his heart rattling against his ribs, he reached out his hand with a newfound courage Jaebeom couldn’t even begin to guess where it came from. 

“Care to dance?” You could see the tremor in his hand as he held it in front of you. It eased you somewhat, for it matched the shiver in your knees. “I mean, while we’re out here. We shouldn’t waste a good song.” 

And it was a good song, something old, nostalgic even; from your adolescence and a wave of youthful innocence washed over you. You had wanted this for far too long, to be close to him - to be near him in a space, in a manner only you shared. Though, the setting was far from ideal, you weren’t sure you’d ever get this chance ever again. So as gingerly as you brushed a strand of hair off your face, you took his hand. 

It was warm, _god_ it was warm. His touch. His fingers slowly wrapping around yours to gently sway to the music. But it was far too slow, his movements; completely sluggish as if his crippling fear of showing you how much he loved you had thrown a lasso around his feet and made him incapable of dancing. Yeh, Im Jaebeom - incapable of dancing. Who would have thought?

Not as though you were doing much better; snapping your head away every time your eyes found each other. You knew it looked ridiculous. How you both were moving utterly out of sync with the music, and by the grace of Hana herself, she had barrelled in to save you. 

“I know you didn’t say you wanted one, but I got you a drink.” Grabbing the glass from her hand, you spotted through the corner of your eye Jinyoung tapping Jaebeom on the shoulder. Taking his distracted face as a chance to breathe, you spun around; Hana shoving her face into yours.

“What the hell are you doing?” Through gritted teeth, a strained smile to appear as inconspicuous as possible. You only managed to reply with a grunt from deep in your throat, your mouth too busy latched to the lip of the glass, swallowing down alcohol like water. Gasping for air as the last drop slid down your throat, you had a second to register just how strong that drink was. 

“Ugh, what was that?!”

“I could ask you the same thing!” Heel of your palm wiping wayward drips from the corner of your mouth, you tried to look at Hana square on, but she was blurry at best. 

“You look like an idiot.” You nodded, you knew full well you did. 

“Get yourself together and just, ugh, goddamn it just dance with him.” She lovingly smoothed down your hair, pushing it back over your shoulders and tapping a knuckle against your chin. “Or I will.“ 

Her darting glance behind you made your back straighten. Jealousy. No, possession. But that felt wrong too, so you settled on jealousy. This song was yours, yours and Jaebeom’s. 

Hana saw the flicker of determination spark in your eyes and smirked - her plan had worked. Turning you around with a flick of her wrist, she slipped away, just like before - into the crowd, like a snake into bushes. 

"No, later.” You heard Jaebeom protest. 

“Hyung, it’s important.” Jinyoung snipped. 

“ _Later_.” You caught Jinyoung’s wandering eyes and retreated into the safety of hunched shoulders. When you looked back up, Jinyoung was gone. 

“Sorry..” Sheepish, fingertips pinching the bell of his ear. 

“Everything okay?” Stepping forward as he did, the space was closed much more than before. A sharp inhale shook you both, but neither of you noticed. 

“Uh, yeh. I think.” Jaebeom stole a look over his shoulder to where Jinyoung was standing next to his manager. “I’ll check later.”

His feet began to move again, equally as slow and uncoordinated as before and despite the cloud of alcohol and anxiety harbouring over you, you couldn’t help but find it adorable. This time, it was you who held out your hand. 

“Come on, we can’t let this song go to waste.” A laugh. A single, heavenly puff of air escaped his lips and it made your heart stammer. Jaebeom grabbed your hand, grip tighter than before. 

“Show me what you got." 

It took five songs. Five whole songs before you were dancing like you were before he approached you. You could blame the alcohol, but his smile was far more intoxicating. Jaebeom had found his feet as well, and suddenly you were getting lost in the way his body moved. So much so that you slipped, heel sliding out from under you, lurching your body forward and slamming against Jaebeom’s chest. 

“Fuck, shit! Argh - _oh god._ ” Finally realising that your arms had clung to his, you peeled your cheek off his chest; snapping back to stand. Though your ankle failed you and you tipped forward once again; Jaebeom quick to catch you. 

“Shit, are you okay?!” Concern and a hint of panic laced his voice, but you couldn’t bring yourself to look at him; your face was far too hot to be a normal colour. 

Pulling in a deep but shaky breath, you tried to stop your head from spinning; the rush of falling and the dwindling haze of alcohol making the pain in your ankle feel dull, and you knew that was a bad sign. Jaebeom gripped his thumb into your forearm, urging you to answer him, but you were distracted with how your fingers were wrapped around his biceps. You slid your hands off his arms, a dry swallow shortly after.

“Ahh, yeh. I think I should sit down.” Jaebeom grabbed your hand, authoritatively and without a flicker of hesitation. He needed to make sure you were okay, his heart was yelling at him too loudly for him to be anxious now. Leading you off the dance floor and onto a chair, he let your hand slip out of his as you sat. 

“Do you want anything? Water maybe?” You still refused to look at him, you were sure the heat radiating from your cheeks had turned you from human to tomato. 

“Ye-yes please.” And in a flash he was gone, marching to the bar like a man on a mission. A moment of calm finally graced you, and the pain in your ankle began to set in. Leaning over to rub a cautious finger over the pain, you winced at the intrusion of your touch. 

Two songs had passed, a measure of time you had fully adopted and you realised Jaebeom hadn’t returned. Craning over your shoulder, you found Jaebeom at the bar, having what looked to be a serious conversation with his manager; all with a glass of water in his hand. That alone would have been enough to sober you, but the furrow in his brows made you anxious. You had seen that look before and it never bode well. You felt your chest cinch in, a tightening of your ribcage and the only thing that’d make it go away was the look of trepidation to fade from Jaebeom’s face. 

You snapped around when Jaebeom parted from his manager. He placed the glass on the table and himself in the chair opposite yours.

“Here, drink.” You did as instructed, eyes cast over his features that still held uneasiness in the fine lines around his eyes that looked across the crowd. 

“Jae–” His name floated off your lips and made him shiver. His eyes crossed the room and found yours. “Is everything okay?” 

He exhaled a hollow sigh, his hands wringing together as he leaned his elbows against his knees. “There’s people hanging my house. Fans… stalkers.. Whatever, but they’re just waiting. Across the street, by the gate. Random people.. Just waiting.” 

You held out the half full glass of water to him, tilting your head to the side to convince him to take it. Fingers grazing yours as he took the glass, he held it to his lips before sighing once again.

“What are you going to do?” Concern stained your voice and the sound seemed to loosen the cord binding his shoulders together. 

“Hyung said they’re working on clearing them. Staff and police are heading there to get rid of them. But he said just to lay low for a while. Not go back home until he says so.” A still silence fell between you, one of shared contemplation. A break in the music seemed to be the cue, your mouths opening to speak simultaneously. 

“So I guess I’ll stay he–”

“You could hide out at my place.” _Shit_. If the way his eyes acted like a mirror to show you how wide your eyes had blown out, the sting from the lights blaring into them was enough to make you realise what you had said. 

“I mean, shit… Well I should probably go home anyway.” Pointing at your ankle. “And mine’s not too far out of the way from yours so, you could.. I mean-if you wanted…” You wanted to blame it on alcohol, but that haze had faded, so it must have been a newly acquired boldness that had replaced it. But Jaebeom didn’t have to leave, he had no need to. He could stay. Of course he could stay. Hide out in the safety on the bar, surrounded by friends, wait it out until he was clear to go home. He had no reason to go home with you. None. None whatsoever. 

“Yes.” Deer in headlights. Back straight like a board, breath shallow at best. Jaebeom swallowed thickly, inhaling the courage he just spat out. “Ye-yeh, no, that would be good.” 

You swore your heart was thumping in your throat, your stomach doing flips and pushing it up there. You tried to swallow it back down, but Jaebeom’s lips parted to speak. 

“You shouldn’t go home alone with that ankle. So I should take you ho.. If-if that’s okay.” You nodded through a heavy swallow. 

“Sure, shall we.. go..then?" 

“Ah, yep. Yes, okay. Good.” Jaebeom sprung up while you merely uncoiled yourself from the chair. Hobbling to Hana while he crossed to the bar, she gave you the most impertinent grin as she handed you your bag. Her face scrunched in delight as you explained the situation, so you drove a knuckle into her ribs to shut her up. 

“Well done.” 

“Fuck off”

“Have fun.”

_“Fuck off.”_

You were already at the door when Jaebeom had finally finished speaking with his manager. You gave him a curt bow when he turned away from Jaebeom to look your way, and you barely saw the satisfied smiles on Yugyeom and Bambam’s faces before Jaebeom blocked them from view. 

“Umm, ready?” There was a glimmer of excitement in his voice though it was drowned in apprehension, but you couldn’t hear it over your heartbeat playing tennis between your eardrums. 

The air outside the bar was still, and the night around you calm. Feeling warm under the gentle glow of amber streetlights, tiny flecks of silver peppered the sky above; the distant burn of stars almost guiding your way home. Yet the exchanges between you and Jaebeom were eerily silent. Small, fleeting, awkward notions of conversations stirred yet never bloomed. So, as you turned the corner into the boulevard that would eventually lead to your street, you felt the urge to give in. Give in to every burning signal inside you and just come out with it. 

Slowing to a stop, your drew back your lips to pull in an unsettled breath; Jaebeom pausing to turn to you; expectantly, wantonly. 

“Jae, ummm…” Short pause, long breath. “Jaebeom, I need you..” 

Jaebeom could feel the tiny strands that tied his resolve to his sanity snapping, and if he wasn’t having trouble breathing, he would be telling you just how much _he_ needed _you_. So much. Too much even. 

“I need you to give me your socks.” Plain, simple sincerity drifted across the space between you and Jaebeom could feel his heart bashing against his sternum, as if it wanted to leap into your hands. 

“We’re like.. seven blocks away and I can’t keep going in these shoes and.. _ahhhh, okay..?_ ” Silenced by Jaebeom slipping out of his shoes in the middle of the street, his eyes never left yours as he pulled off each sock with an expert tug of his thumb. If you had asked him, he wouldn’t have even realised what he was doing, unable to quantify the ridiculousness of your request that the only thing he could do was to simply comply. Jaebeom was struck dumb with shock upon hearing your first statement that his heartstrings began to unravel. 

And there he was, holding them out to you, along with his socks; his tender, albeit still stunned expression imploring for you to take them. A whispered thank you hung in the air as you took the socks from him, lowering down onto the curb to wrestle with the straps of your heels. 

Lost in your concentrated pout and how his socks were completely mismatched with the classiness of your dress, Jaebeom felt his body jolt when you called out his name. 

“Sorry, what?”

Looking up at him through your lashes as you pulled up his last sock. “Are you going to put your shoes back on?” 

Feeling the cold asphalt soak into his soles, he tipped over; shoving his feet into his shoes so fast it made you dizzy when he stood back up. His lip was wedged between his teeth, a sight you couldn’t handle. Turning to face the hill, you pointed towards the crest.

“This way.” 

The remaining seven blocks were spent in a powder keg. Tension filled yet relatively comfortable silence, broken only in the moments when Jaebeom would point something out and you would answer willingly, as if he was shedding yours layers to learn more about you. The bus stop you wait at. The convenience store you frequent. The cat you pat when it passes by. 

“Oh, there.” You pointed to a store tucked between a bookstore and green grocer; the white panelled door illuminated by the hanging light on its frame. “That’s where I buy a lot of your shirts. The ones you always end up buying off me.” 

Jaebeom squinted in it’s direction, as if to remember it in the future and to mask the happiness that was swelling in him over the notion of you and him between mentioned in the same sentence. He liked the sound, especially from you. 

You turned into a small alley and stopped in front of a door, three houses from the corner. Swirling your hand around in your bag in search for your keys, you looked over your shoulder to see Jaebeom calmly looking back. The very hint of a gentle smile curled the edges of his lips and you swore you’d melt right there; be soaked up by your door mat and not care. 

Jiggling the key in the lock, it finally clicked open and you pulled the door towards you. Patting down the wall to find the light switch, you flicked it and your home was flooded with warm light. You stepped aside, one hand holding the door open while the other rubbed the back of your neck. 

“Umm, come in..” Jaebeom almost glided past you, his cologne filling your senses and driving you to bite the inside of your cheek to stop you from gasping at the fact Jaebeom was literally walking into your house because you invited him. In what world did you think this would happen? This one, apparently. 

Once Jaebeom crossed the threshold, you spun to grab the doorknob. Stepping backwards into your house, you pulled the door shut and latched the lock, dropping your keys back into your bag. 

“Ahh, do you want something to dri–” Turning around to see where Jaebeom had went, you were met with his body _almost_ pressed against yours. He hadn’t ventured far, he was too afraid to, to be honest. So he took two steps in and waited for you to tell him where to go, because he had absolutely no idea what to do. He couldn’t even feel his hands. 

But there he was, standing in front of you, watching your eyes flicker across his face. You were a mere breath away from his lips; away from the pink softness that could whisper you into oblivion. Or euphoria. You weren’t sure which one just yet because he was staring into your eyes in a way you had never seen before. 

_What had you gotten yourself into?_


End file.
